Eric Alterman

Eric Alterman (born January 14, 1960) is an American historian, journalist, author, media critic, blogger, and educator.

He is a CUNY Distinguished Professor of English and Journalism at Brooklyn College and the author of eleven books.

Alterman was born to a Jewish family in 1960.

He graduated from Scarsdale High School in the New York suburb.

He earned a BA in history and government from Cornell University, an MA in international relations from Yale University, and a PhD in U.S. history from Stanford University.

Alterman began his journalism career in 1983, freelancing originally for The Nation, The Washington Monthly, The New Republic, Harper's, Le Monde diplomatique, and later, for Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic Monthly, among others, while working as a senior fellow for the World Policy Institute in New York City and Washington, D.C. Not long after, he became the Washington correspondent for Mother Jones and, soon thereafter, Rolling Stone, before returning to The Nation as a columnist in 1995.

Alterman has been a contributing editor or columnist for many publications including Elle, Worth, Rolling Stone, and The Sunday Express (London), while he has also contributed to The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and Le Monde Diplomatique.

In 2021, he restarted "Altercation" as a newsletter published by The American Prospect.

Alterman's first book was entitled, Sound & Fury: The Making of the Punditocracy, which won the 1992 George Orwell Award.

Alterman wrote the book while studying for his doctorate in U.S. history at Stanford University.

Alterman's other books include the national best-sellers, ''What Liberal Media?

From 1995 to 2020, Alterman was "The Liberal Media" columnist for The Nation.

He is a contributing writer there, and at The American Prospect, where under a two-year grant he wrote the newsletter, Altercation, until January 27, 2023.

In his farewell newsletter column Alterman stated that he opened a Substack page also entitled, Altercation, on January 21.

2023, and that although publication plans were only in development, he was accepting free subscriptions.

Alterman was hired by MSNBC in 1996, appearing as a commentator on the cable channel and writing a column posted on its website.

Why Democracy Matters in Foreign Policy (1998) and the second edition of Sound & Fury'' (2000).

His It Ain't No Sin to be Glad You're Alive: The Promise of Bruce Springsteen (1999, 2001) won the 1999 Stephen Crane Literary Award.

His doctoral dissertation, completed in 2002 with Barton Bernstein as primary advisor, was entitled, Two lies: the consequences of presidential deception.

It previously had been a daily blog featured by MSNBC beginning in 2002.

In 2002, MSNBC engaged him to create the blog daily "Altercation", one of the first blogs hosted by a mainstream media news organization.

The Truth About Bias and the News (2003, 2004) and The Book on Bush: How George W. (Mis)leads America'' (2004).

Other books he has authored include ''Who Speaks for America?

Since fall 2004, he has been a professor of English at Brooklyn College, where he teaches courses in media and media history.

In September 2004, Viking Press published When Presidents Lie|When Presidents Lie: A History of Official Deception and its Consequences – a version of his doctoral dissertation – on lies of major consequence told by American presidents.

In September 2006, after a ten-year association, Alterman and MSNBC parted ways.

Media Matters for America hired him as a senior fellow and agreed to host "Altercation", effective from September 18, 2006.

Regular contributors to "Altercation" included the sportswriter Charlie Pierce and the historian and military officer Robert Bateman.

In 2007, he was named a CUNY distinguished professor of English at Brooklyn College and professor of journalism at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.

On December 22, 2008, Alterman announced that "Altercation" would be moving to the website for The Nation in 2009, and would appear on a less regular basis than its previous Monday to Friday schedule.

He also has worked as a history consultant for HBO Films.

Alterman has taught journalism at both New York University and Columbia University.

His seventh book, published in 2008 by Viking was entitled, Why We're Liberals: A Political Handbook for Post-Bush America.

Also in 2008, Alterman published a lengthy essay in The New Yorker on the decline of American newspapers and the future role of new media news sites.

It was an extension of a lengthy article by him that was published by The Nation in summer 2010.

His eighth book, Kabuki Democracy: The System vs. Barack Obama, was published in early 2011.

Alterman's ninth book, The Cause: The Fight for American Liberalism from Franklin Roosevelt to Barack Obama (2012), is a history of postwar American liberalism co-authored with the historian Kevin Mattson.

Three years later, in 2015, his tenth book, Inequality in One City: Bill de Blasio and the New York Experiment was published.

In 2020, he published his eleventh book, Lying in State: Why Presidents Lie and Why Trump is Worse.

His twelfth book was published in 2022 and is entitled We Are Not One: A History of America’s Fight Over Israel.